Harlequin Hotels, the company that owns Buccament Bay Resort in St Vincent has won a fraudulent misappropriation case against a former contractor at the resort.

Harlequin Hotels and Resorts said in a release last week that it had won the case against Padraig “Paudie” O’Halloran.The High Court in Ireland heard that the contractor fraudulently misappropriated more than US$13 million from US$50 million sent to his firm for the resort’s construction.“During the 31-day trial, Harlequin provided evidence and witness testimonies detailing how O’Halloran fraudulently misappropriated in excess of US$13m from US$50m that was sent to the ICE Group for the resort’s construction. Of the $13m that was diverted, more than $2m was sent to Ireland to pay for items including a lavish wedding. The Court also heard that sums were used to fund luxury purchases, such as a US$1.5m private jet, a racecourse in St Lucia, a car franchise business and renovations to a rented property on the Sandy Lane estate,” Harlequin said in a release.Harlequin also stated that while the funds were being misappropriated, very little of the promised construction work was actually carried out at Buccament Bay Resort, resulting in the resort opening later than originally planned and on a smaller scale.

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Pat Cash, John Barnes, Teddy Sheringham and Lewis Moody are just some of the legends from a range of sports who will be providing master class coaching to guests for the second half of 2013 at the luxury, all-inclusive Buccament Bay Resort in St Vincent & The Grenadines. It's been an amazing first six months of 2013 for sports fans at the award-winning Caribbean hotel, with big names like Liverpool FC legend David Fairclough, Grand Slam tennis star Lee Childs, ex-England cricketer Ronnie Irani, and Wales’ rugby team coach Rob Howley already delighting guests; however, the next six months promise to be even better, so scroll down for a full list of the sporting legends who will be visiting Buccament Bay between July and December 2013!Liverpool FC International Football Academy Soccer School

Valentine's Day is approaching and it's that time of year to reflect on what brought you together and sharing those precious moments with each other.A holiday at the 5 star Buccament Bay Resort is all about celebrations. This Valentine's Day, make sure you get to take some time out of your busy schedule and enjoy some luxury treatment.Activities that will keep you both going... Improve your tennis skills with the resident tennis coach or experience a romantic sunset cruise with cocktails and canapes; lie back and enjoy a fantastic treatment in the ESPA Spa, be wined and dined at one of the four great restaurants; most of all, find time to enjoy each other. There are two romantic packages for Valentine's Day at Buccament Bay Resort...

Dinner in Jack's - Enjoy a 4 course fine dining experience in the exclusive restaurant, with a glass of Louis Roederer champagne each

Exclusive Beachfront Dining Experience - Enjoy an exclusive menu on the beach, complete with a bottle of Louis Roederer Champagne and your own private waiter

If after visiting the resort you invest in one of the units then your holiday cost will be refunded (maximum £3000).Further information - LINK

St Vincent & The Grenadines 2012 Tourism Award for Outstanding Service in the Tourism/Hospitality Industry!

Kay Wilson, who runs Indigo Dive at Buccament Bay Resort, has been honoured with the St Vincent & The Grenadines 2012 Tourism Award for Outstanding Service in the Tourism/Hospitality Industry!This fantastic achievement comes a year after Indigo Dive was awarded PADI 5 Star status for its excellent standards of dive tuition, and in the same month that Kay, along with the Buccament Bay Resort team, hosted a very successful Kids Sea Camp by Family Dive Adventures for a special thanks giving event that saw dozens of children attend.To book a holiday on Buccament Bay or to invest in one of the resort units follow the link - BUCCAMENT BAY RESORT

The Water Front Village at Buccament Bay Resort in St Vincent & The Grenadines.Buccament Bay Resort is extremely proud to receive even more honours to add to the collection; this time, the luxury, all-inclusive resort in St Vincent & The Grenadines has been voted in the top ten best hotels in the world in THREE categories, courtesy of Travel Weekly.

The polls, voted for by travel industry professionals, ranked Harlequin Hotels & Resort’s flagship Caribbean resort in the top 3 for Best New Hotel, as well as top ten places in Best Family Hotel and Best All-Inclusive Hotel.This comes after Buccament Bay Resort won two World Travel Awards for Caribbean’s Leading New Hotel and St Vincent & The Grenadines’ Leading Spa Resort.Such fantastic industry recognition for Buccament Bay Resort and Harlequin Hotels & Resorts is testament to the great work of the resort team, the strides that the resort has taken since opening.To book a holiday on Buccament Bay or to invest in one of the units please follow the link - LINK

Buccament Bay Resort wins “Caribbean’s Leading New Hotel” and “St Vincent & The Grenadines’ Leading Spa Resort” 2012The WTA awards programme, hailed as “the Oscars of the travel industry” by the global media, highlights and rewards those travel brands that have made the greatest contribution to the industry over the past year.In winning “Caribbean’s Leading New Hotel” for 2012, Buccament Bay Resort beat the likes of Hotel Riu Palace Bavaro (Dominican Republic) and The Hotel Chocolat (St Lucia), whilst the St Vincent & The Grenadines “Leading Spa Resort” honour was awarded over competitors like Palm Island Resort, Petit St Vincent Resort and Young Island Resort.About the World Travel Awards WTA was launched in 1993 to acknowledge and recognise excellence in the global travel and tourism industry. Now celebrating its 19th anniversary, it is regarded as the very highest achievement that a travel product could hope to receive.A packed delegation of VIPs, senior tourism figures and international media traveled from more than 30 nations to attend WTA’s Caribbean & The Americas Ceremony 2012, which was supported by Turks & Caicos Tourist Board and Scotiabank.

St Vincent and Grenadines Argyle International Airport is target to open in late 2013.

KINGSTOWN, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Argyle International Airport is on target to open in late 2013.This has been confirmed by the developer responsible for constructing the new St Vincent and the Grenadines international air gateway. According to the International Airport Development Company (IADC), work has been completed on close to three-quarters of the earthworks for required for the airport’s runway, apron and taxiways. Earthworks on the airport commenced in August 2008 and since then the work team, comprising Vincentians and Cubans, have been have been hard at work, clearing and grubbing the area, demolishing the abandoned structures on the site, and removing the top soil.The IADC affirmed that “work on the terminal building continues apace”, ensuring that it is on schedule to be completed by the contracted date of December 2013, in time for the tourism high season in the Caribbean.The Argyle International Airport is being built on about 290 acres of land, with a paved runway 2,743 metres (9,000 feet) long, and 45 metres (150 feet) wide. Its runway length will allow for direct flights to St Vincent and the Grenadines from USA, Canada, Europe and Central and South America. The airport is designed to accommodate jets as large as the Boeing 747-400s.The US$216 million airport is expected to boast a single 1.5 million capacity per annum terminal built over three-storeys on 145,000sq ft with dedicated areas for ‘domestic’ and ‘international’ passengers. The terminal building will have about 8,700 square metres of floor space, to handle about 1.4 million passengers per year.As of May 2012, the contractor, Overseas Engineering Construction Company (OECC), had completed 23 percent of the work on the building.

To book a holiday to St Vincent follow the link - HOLIDAYTo invest in the 5* Buccament Bay resort which is being built to help cope with the influx of the 1.4 million visitors a year follow the link - INVEST

This photo, uploaded to the Friends of the Argyle International Airport Facebook page on May 5, shows the terminal building under construction.

KINGSTOWN, St. Vincent – Construction of the EC$652 million Argyle International Airport is on track to meet the 2013 completion schedule, a progress report from Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves this week suggested.“I just don’t understand some people when they say that ‘nutten happening out dey’ despite every time you go you see such phenomenal changes,” he said at a press briefing Tuesday as he detailed the work that has been done since the project commence in August 2008.“You know, sometimes, when I hear some people talk, I wonder if they eat something at night and they lie down and it ride their stomach and they dream that nothing [is] going on. Because it is talking place before your eyes,” he said, employing part of an analogy that landed him much criticism some years ago when some citizens accused him of mocking of Spiritual Baptists.EarthworksGonsalves told reporters and radio audiences that as of May 12, 75 per cent of earthworks on the runway, apron and taxiway were completed and the International Airport Development Company (IADC) — charged with oversight of the project — plans to complete 90 per cent by yearend.All earthworks will be completed by the middle of next year, he said, noting that EC$4.4 million has been spent on blasting and 300,000 kilogrammes (0.66 million lbs) of explosives have been used since work began in August 2008.“When we say we had to move three mountains and fill three valleys, span a river and so on and so forth, it is not an easy business you know,” Gonsalves said, adding partly in dialect, “Unless you have a vision and you have the fortitude to go ahead with this lot ah man wudda done fall down.”PavingThe base-laying and pavement will begin later this year, hopefully by September, he said, explaining that there have been some delays because of equipment procurement.The IADC therefore decided to redo its work plan and will continue with earthworks rather than pavement, doing both simultaneously when paving begins.The state-owned firm is assembling the equipment needed for pavement works, some of which is being provided by an US$4.2 million (EC$11.34 million) grant and loan to the government by the CARICOM (Caribbean Community) Development Fund.The IADC has awarded the equipment procurement contracts to three international firms.NSG West Indies Ltd. won the US$1.06 million contract to provide the stone crushing plant.The US$2.3 million quarry and base-laying equipment deal was awarded to RIMCO Caterpillar Inc.GECI Española has been awarded the US$1 million contract for airfield lighting equipment and generators.The project has already received some of the quarry and base-laying equipment and expects to get the stone crushing plant by the end of June.The IADC intends to do the pavement works in house and to set up its own industrial complex, complete with stone crusher, asphalt and concrete batching plants and supporting equipment, Gonsalves said.A 70-member team, including 32 Cubans who will arrive next month, will be involved in this aspect of the project.Sea defences, trucks, wind studyThe construction of sea defences will start later this year at the northeastern end of the runway and the IADC is negotiating the purchase of the ARMCO system for preparing culverts to divert the Yambou River under the runway.The company is also trying to acquire new trucks even as it tries to keep a fleet in working order, Gonsalves said, noting that vehicles at the project have been used 12-hours a day, seven days a week for the last 45 months.“That’s not easy work you know. And if you think that is cheap, these equip consume almost EC$10 million worth of fuel so far — 1.5 million gallons. It’s a lot of work and you notice we are keeping a track as to the quantity and everything else that we use …”Wind studies are continuing and the data collected over the last three and a half years suggest that a crosswind runway might not be needed. But even if one is needed, it will only be 1.5 per cent of the cost of the project, Gonsalves noted.Landside facilitiesThe Taiwanese firm Overseas Engineering Construction Company (OECC), as of May 11, had completed 23 per cent of the terminal building and had received US$12.2 million of the US$26.5 million contract.Of that sum, the IADC contributed about US$2.3 million while the government of Taiwan paid the remainder.And while the size of the mezzanine floor has been doubled to 10,000 square feet to accommodate two executive lounges instead of one, Gonsalves said this adjustment was not expected to affect the cost of the building “in any significant way”.The control tower, fire and rescue station, and cargo terminal building — expected to cost US$5 million — will be bundled in three distinct packages for tender.The fire and rescue station is to start later this year even as the IADC tries to have a private firm to finance and operate the cargo building and hopes that construction can begin no later than May 2012.Meanwhile, talks are underway with a private sector entity interested in operating the aircraft refuelling facility.Access roads, land use planConstruction of the Argyle Gardens access road will resume later this year while works on the Rawacou access road, suspended because of the effect of blasting, will recommence when the blasting is completed.Gonsalves said that Cabinet has received some broad conceptual outlines for a land use plan even as a final copy will have to be approved by the Cabinet.Environmental monitoring and preservation of national heritage, and promotion of the airport are on-going.FinancingFinancing is on target, said Gonsalves, who is Minister of Finance. He said monies come from land sales, the central government, the sale of government shares in the Bank of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and PetroCaribe.He further said that businessman Denzil Bacchus has donation the second EC$20,000 tranche of an EC$100,000 pledge to the airport.At end of April, OECC’s workforce was 196 skilled and unskilled Vincentians and 26 foreigners while the total workforce at the project was almost 400, Gonsalves said.Follow the link to holiday on Buccament Bay 5* resort in St Vincent - LINKFollow the link to invest in the Buccament Bay 5* resort in St Vincent - LINK